1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of manufacturing a ribbon type thin wafer of semiconductor material selected from the group consisting of germanium, silicon, selenium, tellurium, PbS, InSb, ZnTe, PbSe, InAs, CdS, GaAs, InP, GaSb, PbTe, ZnS, Bi.sub.2 Te.sub.3, and mixtures thereof with additional elements for improving their properties, wherein said method comprises melting semiconductor material and rapid cooling the melt on the surface of travelling cooling substrate and forming a ribbon type thin wafer of semiconductor material having a fine and compact microscopic structure and homogeneous composition.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, it is known that a thin plate of semiconductor such as selenium can be obtained by pressing the melt. Further, it is known that the polycrystalline silicon can be obtained on a substrate such as iron plate or stainless plate by the vapour deposition or glow-discharging. It is also known to obtain a thin film of single crystal silicon semiconductor material by taking up slowly from silicon melt. It is known in the prior art to produce the thin film by spattering or electrodepositing semiconductor material other than silicon on a substrate. However, it is unknown to produce at a high speed a thin wafer of semiconductor such as thin flake or thin ribbon which is not deposited on the substrate.
Accordingly, in the prior art, the producing speed of thin film of semiconductor was very low and it is very difficult to produce said thin film of semiconductor by industrial scale of mass production.
A very large scale of power station utilizing solar energy or numerous power sources of solar cells for use of air conditioning in individual houses should be realized for supporting the lack of future energy. While, in the prior art, the producing speed of thin wafer of semiconductor is too slow to produce a large scale of solar cell elements sufficient for supplying necessary energy lack. It is therefore highly requested to develop a high speed manufacturing method of a thin ribbon wafer of semiconductor material in a mass production.